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The Inevitable Death of Desdemona: the Conflict Between Will and Reason

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The Inevitable Death of Desdemona: the Conflict Between Will and Reason THE INEVITABLE DEATH OF DESDEMONA: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN WILL AND REASON Jesús López-Peláez Casellas University of Granada One of the main elements needed to deambiguate the relationships established between the different characters in Othello is the analysis of Desdemona’s behaviour. Only through the study of her attitudes and relations to other characters we will be able to understand the essential meaning of the play. This study should try to describe Desdemona’s behaviour through both her speeches and her significative silences, isolating the characters with which she is connected and clarifying the connotations of these links. In our opinion, this is essential in order to realize the inevitability of Desdemona’s death and the importance of Othello’s concept of honour, what should be the matter of another paper. Here we are going to focus on the behaviour of Desdemona towards four characters of the play: Brabantio, Cassio, Othello and Iago. Brabantio appears only in the first act of the play, but he is present in all three scenes of this act. Obviously, his presence in these scenes introduces an important linking element in the act. Later in the play he will be mentioned by Gratiano (V, ii), and that is the whole of his activity. But it seems reasonably clear that, being Desdemona’s father, the relationship that we can establish between them may serve us to analyse and understand her personality. First of all we should point out the fact that it is on honour and its dramatic possibilities that Othello may well be considered to be built. Apart from marital honour (the most dealt with) and professional honour (of Iago’s professional status versus that of Cassio), it is parental Proceedings of the II Conference of SEDERI: 1992: 167-179 The Inevitable Death of Desdemona (ii) honour, its dramatization, what greatly explains the kind of ties that link Desdemona to her father. The play opens, from the first scene, with a treason. Desdemona has not only accepted Othello’s courtship but she has also decided to marry him without letting Brabantio know a word about it. It is at least significative that Brabantio is completely unaware of Desdemona’s affair with Othello. In spite of this, Brabantio, who calls Iago “villain”in line 119, only some forty lines later is completely convinced of his daughter’s guilt: It is too true an evil. Gone she is, And what’s to come of my despis’d time Is naught but bitterness. (I, i, 161-3)1 This opening presents the reader with a character, Desdemona, who is able to deceive, with amazing efficiency, her father, who completely ignores her engagement to Othello, and also (and this is even more important) Iago; the latter was certainly interested in Desdemona’s sentimental life but he was cheated by her behaviour. In just one scene the reader is made aware of Desdemona’s lack of innocence and ability to deceive everyone when she is interested in it. Amazingly enough, a great part of the critics have failed to see this second or inner nature of Brabantio’s daughter. Brabantio not only feels himself treasoned, as he explicitly states, “O, she deceives me!” but he also predicts Othello a future disgrace. Brabantio’s “despis’d time” will be, later, Othello’s dishonour: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee. The reader must be aware of the fact that a father whose daughter married without his permission would be regarded as dishonoured. This is essential to understand the importance of Desdemona’s action, which can only be considered as a complete lack of loyalty to her father, a sin almost unforgivable in the society of the time. According to professor Marienstrass: “ ... treachery and infidelity still have such profound symbolic meaning in the sixteenth century: they reveal that man’s 1 Quotations are taken from the 1968 edition of Othello by Kenneth Muir (Penguin Books, London, 1968). 178 Jesús López-Peláez Casellas obligation towards God may be broken, that it is not necessarily the basis of existence.”1 Brabantio’s love for Desdemona is, obviously, that of a father to a daughter, but this is stressed by means of some other elements; first of all Brabantio is, apparently, a widower, and he doesn’t seem to have anyone to share his grief with; this appears to be a dramatic resource to reinforce the effect of Desdemona’s treason to Brabantio, being his closest person. Secondly, Desdemona is Brabantio’s only child; this, that can be inferred from his speeches, becomes clear when it is later stated by Brabantio himself: For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child, For thy scape would teach me tyranny. (I, iii, 193-5) Brabantio, not without reason, feels that Desdemona has deceived him, escaped and, thus, strucken mortally his honour. This seems enough to show how far she is of being someone incapable of doing any harm, as many have tried to present her, simplifying her tragic stature. But Shakespeare goes further still in this direction: in a world where “to mourn a mischief that is past and gone/ Is the next way to draw new mischief on” (I, iii, 202-3), Brabantio is unable to overcome his grief for his lost honour and his solitude. The complex essence of his love for Desdemona cannot be treated here in any full detail, but the moral and ethical quality of Desdemona can only be totally appreciated by means of Shakespeare’s last reference to Brabantio at the end of the play: Poor Desdemona, I am glad thy father’s dead: Thy match was mortal to him, and poor grief Shore his old thread in twain. (V, ii, 202-5) All the elements that we have been studying up to here, lead to the recognition of the lack of loyalty inherent in the character of Othello’s wife, exemplified by her treason to her father; and consequently it also leads to the affirmation of Desdemona as the deceiver, a role that will be 1 Marienstrass, Richard, “Othello, or the husband from afar” in New Perspectives in the Shakespearean World. C.U.P. 1985• (Originally published in French as Le Proche et le Lointain by Les Editions de Minuit, 1981). 179 The Inevitable Death of Desdemona (ii) played by other characters (Iago mainly) with relation to other characters, but now defining Desdemona’s attitude towards Brabantio. In the first act Desdemona clearly knows what she is doing; she didn’t have a single doubt when she left her father, substituting Othello for him and degrading his reputation; but with other characters further in the play she will show quite a different capacity. Michael Cassio, the Fiorentine, has acted as a go-between in Desdemona and Othello’s love affair, as we are informed in the third act; the exact importance of Cassio in this matter lies beyond the time scope of the play, but Desdemona, by reminding Othello, allows the readers to know it: What! Michael Cassio, That came a-wooing with you? And so many a time- When I have spoke of you dispraisingly- Hath taken your part, to have so much to do To bring him in? (III, iii, 70-4) Leaving aside the fact that this may probably turn against her, now that Othello is jealous, it states the affection that exists between both of them. This is not the moment to analyze the part played by Iago in Othello’s reaction against his wife, but we should remember, at least, that it was his encouragement of Cassio to ask for help what makes possible the tragedy. Iago convinces Cassio that he should ask Desdemona the favour of begging for him, and assures him that she won’t deny this, For ’tis most easy The inclining Desdemona to subdue In any honest suit (II, iii, 329-31) To our concern, what matters here, apart from Iago’s statement on Desdemona’s nature, is the existence of one powerful reason that almost obliges Desdemona to act. If Cassio, as we said before helped Othello and Desdemona in their relations,1 then Desdemona cannot but say yes to Cassio’s petition; thus, what we have is a reversal of the role of the go- between. The triangle is closed again in this way, and Desdemona falls in 1 We mustn’t forget that Cassio could find easier than Othello, who was a Moor, to enter Desdemona’s house, as G. K. Hunter suggests in Othello & Colour Prejudice (Reprinted from Dramatic Identities and Cultural Tradition, 1978). 180 Jesús López-Peláez Casellas Iago’s spider’s web. It is difficult to state to what extent we can blame Othello’s wife for this, of course it is clearly the way through which Iago achieves his purposes, but neither Desdemona nor anyone in the play will realize this ; we know that she is “as fruitful as the free elements” (II, iii, 331-2), and Iago takes good advantage of this, proving too quick for everyone including Cassio. But Desdemona will accept Cassio’s proposition without thinking in her position or her husband’s; if she shouldn’t be blamed for being fooled by Iago, she certainly could have tried to analyze Cassio’s attitude. It was not at all orthodox in that time, and we would dare say it isn’t in ours, the situation by which a soldier should ask for the wife of his Captain’s intercession to regain his lost position. Desdemona doesn’t understand this and she won’t understand it till the end of the play.
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